Willem III of Euphrania
} |- |} Willem III of Euphrania (18 May 1582 - 27 April 1625) was King of Euphrania (as Willem III in Euphrania and Willem II in Ptolemaia). The seventh member of the House of Oranje-Burgundy to succeed to the throne of Euphrania, Willem II was born in Pyrus to King Frederick II of Euphrania. Willem III was known in Euphrania as Willem the Pious as well as abroad. Willem III having earned the nickname "Willem the Pious" for his total apparent absence of vice, rather than any pious related activities as would be expected. However Willem III conducted the kingdom though several wars and his reign was a critical point in the history of Euphrania. Early life Willem III was born in 1582, to Frederick II of Euphrania and his wife. Willem was born with the name Charles Willem Alexander, taking the name Willem when he ascended to the throne in 1607, at the age of twenty. Willem was never supposed to be king, his father had two other sons. But each of them reigned on the Euphran throne for short periods, paving the way for Willem's eventual succession. Education Despite the fact that it was thought that he would never be king, he received a brilliant education to prepare him for the task of governing one of Euphrania's far stretching provinces. Willem's education focused on the imposition of restraints as well as the encouragement of the mind. This moderate technique in education was devised to create a man who was neither tyrannical nor excessively under the influence of others. Willem's tutors educated him in Latin, Euphran, Greek, French, Ptolemaic, and astronomy. Besides these basics and his skill as a linguist a Willem was not all that intelligent, he was however well liked by his contemporaries who described him as "good-natured, exceptionally pious, and with lively body and peaceful disposition, albeit with a relatively weak constitution. Willem succeeded to the throne in 1607, after his elder brother Willem II died. Reign Governance During the time Willem III's accession the Euphran crown ruled the kingdom through a system of royal councils. The most powerful of these councils were the Council of State, and its subordinates the Council for War, the Council for Finance, that were in turn supported ten councils for the regions, and three specialized councils overseeing the Inquisition, the royal military orders, and the Council of Religious Affairs. As a matter of policy, Willem III avoided appointing grandees to major positions of power within his government and relied heavily on the lesser nobles, the so-called 'service' nobility, men ennobled because of their service to their government. Rather than allow the traditional system of councils to simply govern in his name, Willem III oversaw every council with a amount of scrutiny refusing to delegate even the smallest detail to the councils – the result was a 'ponderous' process of the king who devoted many hours at his desk overseeing every aspect of his government. Domestic policy Willem III had inherited from his brother an empire considerably enlarged by his father and grandfather. Most notably the Kingdom of Ptolemaia had passed to the crown of Euphrania. Meanwhile Euphran possessions throughout the world were seemingly secure. However the Kingdom of Euphrania was divided among seven autonomous kingdoms, Kastiliëland, Friesland, Gulders, Zeeland, Ptolemaia, Groningen, and Utrecht. These autonomous states were loosely held together through the institution of the Kastiliëland monarchy, and the person of Willem III. Willem III utilized the Kastiliën nobility as the ruling caste of the kingdom. Despite being united under one king, the kingdoms were separate entities in almost every other way, having different taxation, privileges, and military arrangements, however taxation was highest in Kastiliëland, despite this the Kastiliën nobility occupied a privileged position at all senior levels. Expulsion of the Muslims Before the start of Willem III's reign their had been a sizable Muslim population in the kingdom. The Muslim minority was considered very threatening to the kingdom's security, and Willem III had made the elimination of the Muslim threat a part of his domestic policy, as an attempt to assimilate Zeeland and the southern regions. The king found his excuse to remove the nation's Muslims from his kingdom, when a rumor began spreading that they had aided pirates in attacking the country's coast. In 1618, Willem III ordered the expulsion of all Muslim persons residing in the Kingdom of Euphrania. The crown benefited immensely from their expulsion, gaining rich lands and assets formally held by the expulsed people. Between 1618 and 1623 around 525,000 and 875,000 Muslims were forced out of Euphrania. The Navy and around 45,000 soldiers were mobilized to transport them out of Euphrania, and as well as to oversee that everything was done smoothly and with great speed. Economic problems Willem III's reign was marked by significant economic problems across the Euphran kingdom. Famine struck the kingdom as a result of a bad harvest during the early years of his reign, while from 1608-1609 an outbreak of the bubonic plague killed over 10% of the population. The failed harvests decimated the rural areas, and the terrible plague outbreaks did likewise in the urban areas. The greatly declining population caused the demand for manufactured goods to decrease further weakening the economy. Financially Willem III was not in by no means a better situation. He had inherited huge debts from his predecessors, and the burdening tradition that Kastiliëland carry most of the royal tax burden. By that time Kastiliëland paid around 65% of taxes going to the Euphran government, meanwhile Friesland, Ptolemaia and Groningen paid nothing. The difficult economic situations forced the King to call the States General more frequently, until they convinced him that an assembly should be called every three years to oversee the kingdom's finances. The economic crisis was not helped by the increased size of the royal household, an attempt to showcase the kings' power and prestige. By the 1620s, Euphrania had gone bankrupt, and was only able to continue functioning financially because of Genoese bank lenders who became very hated in Euphrania. category:Euphran monarchs